


Tony Stark vs. the World

by TheGriefPolice



Series: Tony Needs a Little Help Sometimes [1]
Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Iron Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: ADHD!Tony, Bruce Is a Good Bro, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, I WILL MAKE THAT AN OFFICAL TAG I SWEAR, Other, Steve Is a Good Bro, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony-centric, hidden disability, okay that's all I can think of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-28
Updated: 2017-06-28
Packaged: 2018-11-20 13:41:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11336655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGriefPolice/pseuds/TheGriefPolice
Summary: So what if the team doesn't know? They don't need to.So what if it's starting to become a problem due to his own stupidity? He'll live.So what if he's a bit of a mess right now. How is that any different than normal.So what if the team finds out--whoa, wait. What???(Tony has ADHD and the team finds out~)EDIT 28 June, 2017





	Tony Stark vs. the World

**Author's Note:**

> The much asked for story for a ADHD Tony that's been in the works for (one, two...) several weeks. I hope you guys enjoy! Working on Autistic!Tony now, but I want to make sure I really hit home with that one, so it might take longer! 
> 
> Also, if you have any ideas for a Tony disability fic you'd like to see, just let me know in the comments!

ADHD!Tony

_Shake shake shake shake shake_

“Tony,”

_Tap tap tap tap tap_

“Tony,”

_Pat pat pat pat pat_

“Tony, I swear to god, if you don’t stop, I will reach across this table and murder you.” Natasha said, giving the man a stern look.

Tony bit his lip and planted all his limbs down. These few days were going to be impossible to get through. He could see the team giving him side looks every now-and-then. But it was hard to control. Especially with something as boring as a debriefing.

“As I was saying,” Fury went on, telling the long-winded reason that the whole team needed to be alert when on the battlefield. So what if Tony was side-swiped by some HYDRA henchman? He was fine and they caught the guy!

“Because it could have been someone not dressed in a suit of metal!” Fury yelled.

Tony looked up wide-eyed. Oops… He hadn’t meant to say that out loud. Oh well.

“If you are done interrupting, I would like to finish this meeting.” Fury’s eye narrowed as he spoke.

Tony wondered for a moment if the other eye did too behind the patch. Maybe it was a thing where he could only control one of his eyes. Maybe Fury didn’t know how to smile and could only do that weird-little half smile thing that only lifts one side of the face and he decided he didn’t like it. Don’t people say a smile is all about the eyes?

Tony had to snap himself out of his thoughts, but his head was racing too fast to stay in the room. They must have been in here for hours. When Tony glanced down at his watch, he found it had actually only been a little over fifteen minutes.

He looked back up, only finding a glare from Natasha once more. She was falling back into the Black Widow look of I-will-kill-you-and-sleep-soundly-tonight. It took a moment for Tony to realize his leg was bouncing again and shaking the table.

That’s it, Tony was done here. He stood up, pulling everyone’s eyes to him.

“Not to say this hasn’t been a great party, but I’ve got better things to do than sit here gathering dust.” Tony pushed in his chair and headed for the door, ignoring Fury’s booming voice as he demanded Stark come back and sit his ass down.

Tony flew back to the tower quickly, shedding his body of the armor and rushing into the lab. He was tired, that was for sure. Things always got worse when he was tired. He couldn’t monitor everything he did like normal. And being off his meds wasn’t helping.

It’s not like he choose to be off them. If he was honest, he wished he just had something that would give it to him every time they started to wear off. It was an honest accident.

Two days ago, Tony had gone into his bathroom and asked JARVIS to open the secret little cabinet above the toilet. He’d opened the bottle, pulled one out and let it go down with a swig of water. But, when he’d gone to close the lid and put them back, the Avenger’s alarm had gone off, making Tony jump ten feet in the air and dump the rest of the bottle into the toilet. Tony didn’t have time to fish them out as he armored up, and by the time they’d gotten back, all of the pills had dissolved.

It had only been about a week’s worth, and, in a few days, one of Pepper’s many assistant would pick up a month’s supply under the name of an alias. Getting through those few days, however, was proving to be a large problem.

He couldn’t ask for more because they wouldn’t give them to some random Joe. And using any of his connections would out his secret that he’d hidden since Howard had first found out. No one can know that there is a fault with any of the Starks.

Tony ran a hand through his hair and let his head fall to the table he was not seated at. He took in a deep breath, trying to calm his ever-running mind. He might as well try to get some work done. If he could play his cards right, he’d be too absorbed in a project for anyone on the team to pull him out and ask questions.

He pulled up a few of the holo-screens, running through each project he currently had on hold. He picked on at random, setting about improving the solar panels so they retained more energy than ever before.

“You know, the panels are already pretty efficient. But, the could use a little more. It is the Stark way to only make the best.” Tony snickered at himself as he rolled his seat around. “Hammer and all those other companies will be no match for my amazing brain. But, really, you can’t blame the guy for not being a genius. Man, imagine what the old man would have done had Hammer and I been switched! Ha! I’d pay to see that outcome.”

“Speaking of which, isn’t it Friday? That makes It movie night.” Tony paused an looked up at the celling as JARVIS spoke.

“It is Doctor Banner’s turn to choose, I believe.” The AI said.

“Ugh,” Tony moaned. Burce was a great guy and Tony loved him dearly, but the man had no taste! If he chose a movie about bees or something again, Tony was going to roll over and die. Who cares how honey is made, the stuff is nasty. Bee puke. Do we eat puke? No, humans do not tend to eat puke. Dogs, however, dogs ate their puke. But dogs were gross like that. And cats.

Ah, but they were still fluffy and cute. Fluffy and cute little puke eaters.

An image of a dog chowing down on a large pile of crap flew through Tony’s mind, making him gag. He waved his hands in the air, trying to shew the thought.

He still liked dogs, though. Maybe he should look into getting one. Tony wondered how a dog would fair in the tower before the thought of all the things that could crush a small animal flashed through his head and he vetoed the idea. Besides, they already had Clint and he was kind of like a dog. Smelled like one, anyway.

“I do not smell like a dog!” A voice rang out behind Tony.

The mechanic turned slowly, an apologetic smile across his face. Natasha and Clint stood a few yards away, dressed in baggy sweaters and pants.

“You kind of do,” Natasha said with a straight face, swaying her hips to the side.

Clint’s eyes narrowed as he looked up at the woman. “Says the woman that smells like dog food, herself.”

That earned Clint a firm punch to the shoulder, making him yelp in pain.

“We came to see if you’ll be crawling out of your hole at any point to watch a movie.” Natasha asked.

Tony was taken for a moment to realize that so much time had already passed. “Uh, yeah. Let me just find my phone real quick.”

Natasha gave him a skeptical look as she glanced around the room. “You can find things in this chaos?”

“Hey,” Tony said, standing, “It’s not that big of a mess!”

“Dude, I can’t even see half the floor.” Clint pointed out.

Tony glanced around and, okay, maybe they were a little right. But Tony didn’t exactly have the patience to clean at the moment, nor the time. And he still knew where everything was! Mostly…

“Just give me a sec to find my phone and I’ll be up.” Tony said, dismissing the pair.

They nodded and walked back to the elevator.

Tony felt like he was digging around for hours as he moved projects around. What had he been working on first? Maybe he could back-track his steps.

Something caught Tony’s attention and drew his head around. A large panel of metal scrap seemed to be moving. Tony walked over, pushing the metal away to show a distraught Butterfingers.

“Hey, I was wondering where you were!” Tony laughed, rubbing the robot’s claw. “Let’s get you out of there, huh.”

Tony moved a few more things, allowing Butterfingers to roll out and join his brothers in a blast of whurs and beeps. Tony smiled at the reunion as Dummy brought over a rod of pipe, shaking back and forth like an excited dog.

Tony threw the pipe, laughing as all three bots raced after it. You won, but barely. He ran back to Tony with it, silently asking for him to throw it again.

Tony smiled, patting the bot’s head and then throwing the rod as far as he could across the shop.

“Tony,” another voice said behind him.

Tony jumped a bit, turning around to glare at Bruce. Why was everyone doing that lately?

“I thought you were looking for your phone?” Bruce said.

“I was!” Tony spat back.

“Then why are you playing fetch with your robots?” Bruce asked, arms crossed as he waited for an answer.

“I just… Got side tracked. What’s it mater to you?” Tony stood up, ignoring the three robots racing back towards him.

“Because you left your phone on the counter this morning?” Bruce said, last word a pitch higher than the rest as he pointed out the obvious.

“Of course I did.” Tony said, standing up and pushing past Bruce to the elevator.

Bruce sighs and steps into the cab, letting the doors close. 

"Tony, are you okay?" Bruce asked after a moment of silence.

"Yeah, why?" Tony answers a little too quickly.

"You just seem," Bruce thinks for a second, then finished with, "off today."

"Nope, perfectly fine. All good. Nothing up." Tony couldn't believe the words that were coming out of his mouth. What a great way to make himself seem totally okay. He wished he could punch himself in the face.

Bruce eyed him, but didn't say anything more as they stepped off the elevator.

The smell of fresh popcorn put a smile back on Tony's face, making him bee-line for the kitchen. A large bowl sat on the counter, and Tony immediately took a handful and shoved it in his mouth.

"Hey! Hands off until the movie starts!" Steve scolded, standing over the stove and shaking another pot as the corn popped inside.

"You know we have bagged popcorn now, right?" Tony joked, reaching for another handful before Steve reached over and swatted at his hand.

"Steve's tastes better." Clint said as he ran by, stealing a handful of the buttery deliciousness before Steve could catch him.

Tony laughed, using the distraction to take the whole bowl and ran for cover as Steve yelled after him.

"You two are never allowed to team up again!" Steve yelled playfully.

Clint held out a fist that Tony happily met with his own as they sat down, perching the bowl between them.

Before Tony knew it, everyone was seated with a large bowl of popcorn and the lights lowered. 

Bruce had picked The Sound of Music for tonight, gaining groans from almost everyone in the room. He looked up as something tapped the top of his head. Bruce held out Tony's phone, handing it to the burnet with an odd look.

Tony brushed off the look, happily flicking through his texts before locking it and going back to the movie.

The next day was no different than any other, save for the fact that Bruce seemed to hover around Tony, which was making the engineer slightly anxious.

Bruce hung out under the cover of a project, sending Tony side glances when the Doctor those he wasn't looking. 

Between Bruce and being off his meds, his head was all over the place. He'd start on one project and find his way down a rabbit hole that had absolutely no correlation to the first twenty minutes later. Tony was afraid Bruce would notice, but he wasn't saying anything and Tony was thanking his lucky stars.

Sadly, though, he hadn't managed to get anything done. Even with his lab in a worse state than before, his list only became longer with things to do. Around five, he gave up in frustration and told JARVIS to take him upstairs.

Bruce followed along without a word, stepping out after Tony on the communal floor.

"Hey," Steve greeted as Tony and Bruce walked toward the kitchen.

Tony groaned and pulled the fridge open, looking for something to eat. He didn't see the look Steve and Bruce shared of concern.

"Do we have any left overs?" Tony asked, not in the mood to actually make food.

"Maybe some pizza?" Steve suggested.

"No, Clint ate that last night." Bruce chimed in.

Tony groaned and slammed the fridge closed, deciding that he didn't want to move any more. He took a seat on the floor, letting his head hit the cabinet with a thunk.

He was very much done with today. He couldn't focus, and he couldn't work to take his mind off the fact that he couldn't focus because he couldn't focus long enough to do anything. What ever happens to the hyper-focus crap?

"Tony are you okay?" Steve asked.

When Tony opened his eyes, he saw that Steve and Bruce were sitting on the floor now, too.

"I'm fine," he sighed, letting his eyes close again.

There was a moment of silence, and the Bruce spoke up. "Tony, you're behavior these past few days is concerning to say the least. We've notice that you seem less put together than normal, you seem more impulsive, and just everywhere mentally. Are you sick again, or are you taking something?"

Tony let out a puff of air at the last one. If he was taking something, he wouldn't be in this situation. "Guys, I'm fine."

"Maybe, but if there a way we could help to make something better?" Steve asked. "It just feels like there's something you're not telling us."

Tony let his head fall back against the cabinet a few more times before taking a large breath. It's not like this was something huge that millions of people didn't struggle with, sure, but it was still hard. It still felt like admitting something was wrong or broken about him. Maybe that was how everyone felt with this sort of thing?

He wasn't special because of what he suffered with, he knew that. But it always felt like he should hide it. His father most definitely had not helped with that, finding every medicine known to man and forcing it down Tony's throats until he was "normal." Or could pretend he was for almost eight hours straight. When he ate, there was really a fifty-fifty chance he'd be able to retain himself afterwards. 

He opened his eyes and looked at the people around him. Both seemed sincere in their concern, and he knew neither of them would run to the tabloids with the information. So, he decided he could tell them. Just this once, he'd tell someone.

"I suffer from Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder, and have ever since I was born." Tony said, eyes locked on his hands as they wringed each other. "I dropped my pills in the toilet a few days ago and I can't get a refill until the end of the week."

"ADHD?" Bruce asked when Tony looked up, sharing a look with Steve. "Tony..."

"Thank you for telling us," Steve said, "but I wish you would have done so earlier."

"He's right, if only for your health. ADHD meds can react badly to even every-day medicines like Advil, for heaven's sake." Bruce consoled. "Without the knowledge of your meds, you're lucky SHEILD hasn't killed you."

Tony cracked a smiled. "Why do you think I always skipped out on the after battle check ups? Besides, I don't need to mix it with other medications. The ones I'm on have plenty of side effects on their own."

"You know," Bruce said, thinking for a moment. "There are ways to treat ADHD without meds. Meditation, exercise, and a diet that doesn't just consist of coffee can do wonders all on their own."

 

Tony smeared at his friend. "You think I haven't tried all of that? You think I want to keep taking meds just so I can function? I hate it! I hate it all! And none of your breathing techniques are going to change the wiring in my head!"

"Tony," Steve said, trying to reach for his friend.

"Don't." Tony glared at Steve. "Look, none of that shit helps. Howard pushed every god-damn thing he could find onto me u til something stuck. This was all that worked. The world isn't fixed with eating healthy and working out!"

Bruce looked down at his feet, trying to think of anything to say. But nothing seemed like it would work. Instead, he settled on, "I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking."

Tony sighed, running a hand through his hair. "It's okay, just--just know that it's not how things work."

"Wouldn't coffee make this worse, though?" Steve asked after a moment. "I mean, with all the caffeine..."

"Actually, most of the medications used are stimulants, and caffeine acts in the same way." Bruce corrected. "The brain is wired differently, and things reacts in different ways."

Steve nodded, looking over at his friend. "I'm sorry that I don't know much about this."

Tony shrugged. "A lot of people don't. It's not always an inability to focus; sometimes I focus too much on the wrong thing. And it's not always jumping around a room, either. There are tons of different kinds."

"Really?" Steve asked, looking to Bruce, who nodded.

"Hey, what do you say to a horribly unhealthy lunch of pizza and soda?" Steve asked, nudging Tony's leg. "Something just fun that you don't have to focus on. Maybe a movie or a game?"

Tony smiled. "That's sounds like a horrible idea."

"Let's do it!" Bruce laughed, making the choice for them.

Bruce stood up, dusting himself off before he offered a hand out to Tony. When the burnet was back on his feet, Bruce gave him a few parts on his shoulder with a reassuring smile. 

Maybe Howard was wrong, maybe Tony wasn't broken. And maybe he just needed a few good friends to show him that.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and Kudos are always appreciated, but never expected!
> 
> SHOUTOUTS  
> Thank you to  
> @Reesachan for letting me know about the very wrong facts I had at the end of this and giving me an idea of how to fix it!  
> And to @LovelyIKnow for, again, pointing out wrong facts and helping me fix the story!
> 
> I do appreciate the help in making these as reailistic as possible and your responses help make that happen!


End file.
